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Parents Could Face Jail For Not Loving Children Under New Law

Parents who do not give their children enough love and affection may spend time in jail.

Under the UK's new “Cinderella Law," child neglect now includes “emotional cruelty.”

According to The Telegraph, the UK Government will announce the law change in early June.

The change will update current laws that criminalize assault, abandonment or exposing a child to suffering or injury.

Now, parents could go to jail for up to 10 years if they deliberately harmed a child’s “physical intellectual, emotional, social or behavioral development."

The Telegraph reports this would include ignoring, not showing love and damaging emotional development.

The law change also criminalizes making a child witness violence in the home, forcing a kid to be a scape goat and degrading punishments.

The new law is coming into effect because 1.5 million British children reportedly suffer from some sort of neglect. Police hope the change will allow them to intervene earlier before a child is physically or sexually abused.

“Our criminal law has never reflected the full range of emotional suffering experienced by children who are abused by their parents or carers,"Robert Buckland, a Conservative MP and a supporter of the law, told The Telegraph.

"The sad truth is that, until now, the Wicked Stepmother would have got away scot-free,” added Buckland.

According to News.com.au, the effort to criminalize emotional abuse began in 2012 by Action for Children, a UK charity.

A spokesman for Action for Children says the changes are “monumental step” in protecting children.